Thursday thought: etiquette is about words, and timing too

I sat through a LinkedIn educational session on the topic of how to demonstrate the best etiquette in posting and commenting on LinkedIn. Preaching to a choir of nice people, of course, but the stream of conversation left out one thing: your timing of saying thank you.

I saved this point for this blog post and did not want to derail the conversation from its intelligence with a tangent.

Thank yous are fine, and how you deliver them always reflects your personality offering appreciation: do you email, do you text, do you send via LinkedIn message and then in words, in audio recording, or in a brief video?

But no one mentioned what I realized was missing: it’s the timing of your thank you that often makes an impression.

As in right away, in the moment, with immediacy to show your heightened awareness to them of how much this means. Yes, it’s words, but it’s also when the words are offered, and received.

Too often I see thank yous a week or so after the fact. Not very effective.

Or I’d not get a thank you at all. Yes, I get that we are busy, but who is too busy to say thank you in any communication method immediately so a few heartfelt words are not forgotten?

OK, I will immediately step down from my soap box. Thank you for speedily commenting back.